Mary Dowds, Dublin 1903-1985

[Sunny1865]

I have recently received confirmation that my great aunt was a patient interned at St Ita's Portrane. Thank you for the people on this site who guided me in my search. I have managed to track down many of her years but still have a few gaps. What I know so far...
Mary Dowds
Born 1903 to Alexander Earls Dowds & Annie Nunan (I have Birth Certificate record)
Baptised 1903 a couple of days later (I have Record)
1911 Census was at home with her parents 37 Belmont Ave, Donnybrook (confirmed)
1918-1922 Mary attended Alexandra College (confirmed by librarian)
1940-1945 according to electoral roles was Herbert Street Dublin
1945 Admission to St Itas, Portrane, last address is Herbert Street, working as a clerk (confirmed by Dublin Health and a small amount of anecdotal information on Mary's life there eg. "Independant. intelligent wrote 2 letters a day")
1945-1985 Interned at St Ita's (interesting last address 37 Belmont Avenue, now her brothers home)
1985 Buried at Deansgrange Cemetery with her brother and his wife (confirmed by cemetery records)
As you can see I have found a lot of information. Have I exhausted every possibility? Family oral history indicated she may of been a Nun? Reading about Donnybrook there are several Orders in that area. Poor Clares possibly? Has anybody had any success contacting Church's to confirm if someone was a nun or in the care of the Church. Where might she have gone to school for her primary years? Her father was a teacher and school principal. Could she have gone onto secretarial college after Alexandra College, if so where? I have contacted their alumni but they could only confirm her enrolment. Do I give up the search and call Mary's story DONE??  Any suggestions where to go from here? Thank you
 

[dublin1850]

Alexandra College (in those days) would have had almost exclusively Protestant children attending it.
It had a primary school too, so she could have attended it for both levels of education.

I note in the 1911 census the father refused to give information regarding their religion. She would have been an unusual candidate for the convent, though often children go the opposite way in religious matters compared to their parents.

40 years is a long time in a mental hospital.

**edit Just looking at the Deansgrange records, her religion is given as the code C/I , so Church of Ireland I suppose.

[Purpeller]

I think that's a really thorough piece of research.
Have you got her medical files from St Ita's?
It's desperate to think she was in an institution for 40 years. Do you know why she was there?

For primary school, she probably just went to the local CoI school in Donnybrook. It's hard to get school records unless the school still exists now.

[Sunny1865]

Thank you all for your input. I think I have exhausted all avenues for my great aunt Mary. I do not believe Mary was a Nun. It is hard to believe she was in Portrane for over 40 years with chronic schizophrenia. I believe it was one of her brothers who signed her in after episodes of overspending. Sorry about the late reply I only just found my post, several years late! 

[mc933]

Hi Sunny,

I randomly came across your post.
I have had similar with a family member. The descendents were told she was a nun. The death record shows she died in Portrane and it seems some family did know.  It seems to have been an excuse when someone was in a psychiatric hospital and a way to hide the stigma. There was a fear that any kind of issues (health or otherwise) would bring shame on the family and be thought to be inheritable. There are lots of cases of the person being sent away for just being disliked by the family, in the way of a will, or women to have stood up for themselves/been independent etc etc. We were able to find out a bit more about her. There are also former staff pages on Facebook where they sometimes will remember the patients too. I hope you can find out a bit more too.

Also this is the information request info as of last year:
The Community Healthcare Organisation Dublin North City and County Mental Health
Service maintains an archive of records for its past and present service users at St Ita’s Campus in Portrane. The records are stored in a secure location on the campus. Records can be accessed through the Freedom of Information process here. Pick someone from Dublin and ask them to redirect it if it's wrong:
https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/yourhealthservice/info/foi/making-a-request.
The National Archives on Bishop Street in Dublin may also be able to help advise.